愿首批太空旅客愉快返航Here's wishing the first space tourists many happy returns

I am old enough to have witnessed, at an impressionable age, the moment when the evolution from dog to chimpanzee to man orbiting the Earth occurred, when “reaching for the stars” went from a figurative to a literal pursuit.

到了我这个年纪，已经经历过了狗、黑猩猩再到人类的绕地球飞行。人们“九天揽月”的想象已成了现实。

To this day I am haunted by the sad plight of Laika the space dog, who was sent into orbit (but never returned) just days before I officially became an earthling.

如今，我依旧难以忘怀太空犬莱卡的悲惨命运，它被送上了太空（但有去无回）。在这几天后，我出生了，正式成为了一名地球人。

I could not have imagined, while watching on live TV as Neil Armstrong placed his oversized boot onto the surface of the moon, that even I could one day buy a ticket to venture into space.

当我在电视直播上看到尼尔·阿姆斯特朗(Neil Armstrong)穿着大靴子登月时，我从没想过，有一天我也能买到太空旅行的票。

But that day is rapidly approaching, possibly within the next year, according to front-runners in this new space race. A few fortunate “space tourists”, yours truly not likely to be among them, will go where no common man or woman has gone before (and, we hope, will fare better than poor Laika).

但是根据太空前沿领域报道，“飞天”的日子很快就要到来了，也许就在明年之前。有少数幸运的“太空旅客”将去往此前普通人从未去过的地方，当然本人应该不在内（希望我们的命运不要像莱卡那样悲惨）。

Thrilling though the prospect is, there’s a small detail about /one such plan for space tourism that might give pause. But more on that in a moment.

尽管听起来激动人心，但是太空旅行的计划依然存在一丝疑虑。

First, it’s lamentable that tickets for the inaugural space tourism trips will probably be snapped up by rich customers seeking to boost their bragging rights.

首先，遗憾的是，首次太空旅行的票有可能被有钱人握在手中来当做炫耀的资本。

Wouldn’t it be a far nobler way to mark such a grand occasion if, instead of sending the pampered elite skyward for a joy ride, we filled the spaceship with promising creative minds who, upon their presumed return, could reap a rich harvest of the imagination?

与其把这些有钱人送上太空来次欢乐旅行，不如让未来可期、创意十足的才智们通过旅行来丰富其想象力，这难道不是纪念此次盛举更为崇高的方式？

What might happen, for example, if the likes of a Stephen Hawking or a William Blake, the British poet of yesteryear who argued that imagination IS existence, were among those first few lucky rocket riders? Maybe as they floated giddily against the backdrop of the galaxy, they’d have ideas that could jump-start how we view our own small world.

比如，如果是像斯蒂夫·霍金、威廉·布莱克这样的英才幸运地成为首批火箭乘客，会怎么样呢？也许，当他们漂浮在银河系，头晕眼花时突然就得到了灵感，扭转人们看待世界的方式

A tantalizing thought, but there’s still that little glitch mentioned earlier.

这种想法十分诱人，但是也面临我们之前提到的问题。

To wit, among those jumping aboard the space tourism bandwagon is the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, where, according to a recent China Daily report, engineers are “designing a new spacecraft to send anyone willing to pay $200,000 to $250,000 on a suborbital journey to get a magnificent view of the stars and experience weightlessness”.

根据中国日报近日报道，中国运载火箭技术研究院（China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology）掀起了太空旅行风尚，工程师正在“设计新型太空飞船，旅客需要支付20-25万美元才可享受星群浩瀚之景，亲身体验失重”。

A mere half-hour flight aboard the reusable spacecraft envisioned by the Chinese academy will reach an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, offering around 20 lucky (and presumably wealthy) travelers the adventure of a lifetime. So what’s not to like?

中国运载火箭技术研究院设计的可重复使用的宇宙飞船会在太空飞行半小时，抵达海拔超过100千米的高空，给大约20名幸运（大概也富有）的旅客一次终生难忘的冒险。所以有什么坏处？

The devil, as they say, is in the details: The spacecraft will operate without a pilot or controllers aboard. No comforting voice from the cockpit saying, “So sit back and enjoy your flight”. No one to heroically steer the ship back on course if, say, it inexplicably makes a beeline for Betelgeuse.

他们说，问题在于一些细节之处：太空飞船无人驾驶；驾驶室没有导览语音提示“请坐好，旅途愉快！”；当飞船失控径直撞向参宿四时，没有人英勇的将飞船驶入正轨。

Then again, I’m American, and we’re not so trusting yet of autonomous vehicles, big or small. According to a survey by AAA, 73 percent of US drivers say they would dread riding in a self-driving vehicle, up from 63 percent late last year.

再说我是美国人，我们不信任无人驾驶车辆，无论是大型是小型。根据美国汽车协会（AAA）的调查，73%的美国司机称他们害怕乘坐无人驾驶车，但是到去年年末这一数据为63%。

Chinese, on the other hand—who presumably would be the target customers for these autopilot space flights—are increasingly confident of such technology. A recent Deloitte study found that 74 percent of Chinese consumers expressed full confidence in the safety of autonomous vehicles, compared with 38 percent last year.

相反，无人驾驶宇宙飞船的目标客户应该是中国人，他们对太空技术越来越有信心。一份底特律的近期研究发现74%的中国消费者完全认可无人驾驶车辆的安全性能，去年这一数据仅为38%。

But those surveys regarded cars operating on terra firma. For a good number of people, getting comfortable aboard an autonomous spaceship hurtling toward the stars might require not just one small step for a man (or woman), but a giant leap of faith for mankind.

但是这些调查是关于汽车在地球大陆上行驶的。对大部分人来说，在无人驾驶的太空旅行中感到惬意，这不仅仅代表人类向前迈出一小步，而是意味着人类信念的巨大飞跃。